Aston Villa News 24/7Dare I suggest that we can concentrate on the league now? No? Didn’t think so. Nevertheless, we are out of the Carling Cup thanks to a 2-0 loss at home to Bolton in what, by all accounts, was an utterly dismal performance.
Chris Eagles picked up on a Marc Albrighton mistake to score a screamer from 20 yards. Gael Kakuta picked hit a shot on the turn from the edge of the box and beat Shay Given in the bottom corner.
Alex McLeish apparently went with Gabby as the lone striker until the last 20 minutes or so when Nathan Delfouneso was squeezed up in an effort to chase the game. It didn’t matter.
22,261 turned up and many voiced their disapproval at the final whistle, others well before that. I’m not sure you’d describe it as a honeymoon, but whatever it is, it’s surely over now.
What else to say? Not much. Gabby and Bannan come out with some credit apparently.
So there’s that.
Aston Villa: Given, Hutton, Collins, Dunne, Warnock, Albrighton (N’Zogbia 73′), Petrov, Ireland, Bannan, Delfouneso, Agbonlahor. Unused Subs: Guzan, Beye, Lowry, Delph, Gardner, Burke.
Bolton: Bogdan, Steinsson (Robinson 76′), Cahill, Wheater, Gardner, Eagles, Pratley, Muamba (M Davies 88′), Holden, Kakuta, Ngog (K Davies 73′). Unused Subs: Jaaskelainen, Petrov, Blake, Tuncay.
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12 Comments to “Aston Villa 0 Bolton 2: Out of the Carling Cup with barely a whimper”
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Albrighton mistake. Not the first.
Who’s next?
QPR away.
Another draw at best, imo.
Can’t comment on the game, as I was working and never heard/saw a peep.
So annoying this, as surely this will mean that even those that tried to support big feck, will start to turn, especially if it was yet another poor performance.
It’s going to be a re-run of last year, imo.
Now it’s down to Randy’s resolve to decide how long it is before we start hunting for another manager.
Given that it seems we haven’t got a pot to piss in, it could be a long time, which will surely mean crowds falling even further.
I’ll never forgive him for this appointment and it’s not kneejerk either.
two things leap to mind when it comes to thinking about looking for another gaffer: 1) they weren’t exactly queueing up last time and 2) how much have we had to pay out in the last several months in paying off MON, Houllier and paying SHA compensation? *shudder*
can’t see randy jumping into all that again any time soon.
I agree Dan.
But what will it cost if he doesn’t do something?
22,000, when tickets were a fiver and a tenner, I believe?
Even though I never wanted GH, I wasn’t calling for him out this quickly.
I’m not exactly calling for big feck to go either, tbh.
It’s more frustration that he should never have been appointed in the first place.
If we don’t win against QPR and Wigan, before we hit a tough run, you would think it’s definitely just a matter of time for the manager
I kind of don’t care. Villa should be playing for purses. There is really no reason for a mid-table team to concern themselves with the Carling Cup.
N’Zogbia and Bent need to get fit before McLeish can open up play.
Worryingly, I think this is what we will have to put up with. Constant talk of players being fired up for revenge, poor attacking play, little or no semblance of tactics. We have a current England centre forward who has not scored or had a shot on target in the last 4 matches (according to :http://goo.gl/rLkAB).
There is one thing not wanting to lose but it seems that we don’t actually know how to win games. We have recruited a manager that is so tactically inflexible that he has decided on his 4-5-1 formation irrespective of the players available to him, too many square pegs and round holes.
Football has moved on in the last few years tactically and McLeish has not, it’s a shame but we will not be in the top half of the table come end of season, too many draws and not enough goals will ensure that.
I think the problem here is we have a manager that doesn’t have a proven pedigree in top competitions like the Premier league (for example Redknapp or O’Neill) or Europe (Like Mourinho or Villas Boas before Chelsea appointed them).
Martin O’Neill and Houllier were proven winners and we were on the verge of champions league with O’Neill and Houllier was starting to develop a great team (another 2 seasons and I think Houllier would have got us in the top 4 or a league cup at least) but Mcleish is not a proven premiership or european manager, his only success was a lucky cup win for Birmingham and the rest was in Scotland. A Manager that has been relegated TWICE from the Premier League is not a top manager.
We need to take a leaf out of Chelseas book and only appoint managers with a fantastic record in European Competition. Who’s the next Villas Boas or Mourinho? we should be looking to give them their next big break.
It would be great to find that kind of manager as he is on his way up, but that kind of manager won’t have had a “fantastic record” in Europe yet — those managers won’t want to be coming to Villa.
Houllier was not going to get us into the top 4 in two seasons, no chance.
Unfortunately we’re stuck with McLeish – but we now MUST be committed to him being in charge now for at least a year or two. We can’t afford to continue chopping & changing, instead we might just have to face that football has changed, there is now a top 6 well ahead of us, and accept our lot for the moment while McLeish attempts to mould the squad to his tastes. It will take time, which is a pain, but there’s nothing else we can do right now.
Appointing a manager is meant to be a commitment, and that means we just have to stick it out for a while. It’s unlikely we’ll be relegated (I hope!), so we just have to accept a few knockbacks like this over the next year. Let’s not destabilise our own club, as I believe us fans are the ones that will do that if we lose sense of perspective & priorities.
didn’t we try to recruit roberto martinez? an excellent idea too in my book, but the majority of fans recoiled in shock at the very notion when it emerged. i’m sure they’d rip dave whelan’s arm to get him now. hindsight’s always 20/20.
also, i’m sure you won’t rate the scottish league or national team too highly, but it’s worth noting that during the four full-season spell that mcleish’s rangers reign overlapped MON’s time at celtic, it was mcleish who picked up the most silverware.
that’s a very simple barometer we can all understand. we know MON well. celtic and rangers were very similar teams operating in a weak league (except celtic were spending while rangers were cost cutting [sound familiar?]), it was a straight footrace between the two clubs and over that four season period, mcleish won more trophies than MON.
we’re all very quick to look at his failures with a crappy club like the blues, but his 9th place finish the season before last seems to get quickly forgotten. to put some perspective on it, the eight teams ahead of him were the “big eight” you’d have thought were nailed on to take the top eight places before a ball was kicked.
one way of looking at that is that he finished 1st of the 12 chasing teams. as a newly promoted side, that shouldn’t be dismissed so lightly. i hate to say that, but it’s true.
i’ve no desire to be a mcleish apologist, but the point i want to make is that if you feel a manager with his CV doesn’t have the pedigree and if you’re looking to clubs like chelsea for a blueprint of the type of manager we should be going for, you’re destined to be disappointed.
it’s not that i think you’re wrong, i actually think you’re right, but we’re not in their position and i’ve come to understand that the appetite for a non-british approach in B6 is limited. and so, therefore, are our prospects.
I don’t rate Martinez either! if he was any good he’d be getting Wigan in the top half, he’s had long enough to build a team! I’d rather have Ian Holloway, he worked miracles with Blackpool and they actually went for it in every game and his post match interviews are hilarious (describing a scrappy win like pulling an ugly woman is my personal favourite!!)
Well Chelsea weren’t exactly a massive club before they hired Ruud Gullit when the whole revolution there started? previous 4 seasons under Glenn Hoddle were 11th, 14th , 11th and then 11th again! then they hired Ruud Gullit who signed the likes of Zola and the rest is history.